Brilliant Royal Poinciana (Flamboyant)

Picture sour cream and onion dip, but instead of dipping with potato chips, imagine chicken cutlets flattened and broiled to the consistency and shape of crispy thick homestyle chips. Snack food served up as the main course. To aid with this delicious deception the thoroughly hammered chicken is covered with panko, but not just any old panko, but a spicy barbecue variety. Anne found this recipe from the New York Times, printed it and then handed it off to me. It really was quite easy to fix and made for a new and unusual dish and let’s face it, my cooking repertoire could use some shaking up from time-to-time.

Our marching campaign has continued unabated, walking daily to get us some exercise and also to get us out of the house, at least for a little while. This being the short weekend, more people are also out and about. Making social distancing more of a challenge than on those long weekend days. Not to worry though, we just switch sides of the street or if both sides are already taken, we then walk down the middle of the road. Add to this almost drunken wobble is our search for shade. June is warm enough that crossing the street for better shade is a thing to do. In the end, we ping-pong back and forth adding dozens of extra steps to what would have been the straight and narrow.

We watched the new murder mystery Knives Out. This somewhat tongue-in-cheek whodunit sports an all star cast, all wrapped up in a Victorian mansion. It features Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc, with his atrocious attempt at a southern accent that makes him come across more like an Inspector Clouseau rather than a Hercule Poirot. In the end the movie is less an exercise in guessing who the guilty party is, not the least because during its theatrical release earlier this year its director Rian Johnson let loose with a major spoiler or two. Not only did he let loose with a clue on his own movie, but he also outed what had been an unofficial trade secret of the film industry. It turns out that Apple has no problem with movies using their products as props, so long as the characters who are using them are good people. Apple doesn’t want baddies being seen with their iPhones. To this end, I kept scanning the movie, looking for anytime a cell phone was used. As it turned out that wasn’t really necessary at all.